166 --: GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
volume, and becomes a white-ash and typically open-burning coal. 
The latter characteristics it retains throughout its entire southward 
extension, but its volume is subject to numerous changes as it is followed, 
toward the Ohio River. There is a large acreage in the Hocking 
Valley field, where the seam is 6 feet and upwards. It is but 3% feet 
along the line of the M. & C. Railroad. It is also thin throughout 
Jackson county, but in Gallia and Lawrence counties it grows some- 
what thicker. It is at least 4’ thick in the Coalton (Ky.) field. 
11. Tae Lower FREEPORT COAL. 
Synonyms.—Coal No. 5, in southern Columbiana county; Coal No. 6a, in Stark county 
and southwestward; Whan seam of New Lisbon; Steubenville Shaft 
seam; Hamden Furnace coal of Vinton county; Hatcher coal of Law- 
rence county; Coal No. 8, of the Kentucky series (Crandall). 
This is a seam the horizon of which can be followed throughout 
the entire field, but which becomes workable at comparatively few 
points: At one locality, Steubenville, it reaches its highest mark, and 
becomes the basis of one of the best coal fields of the State. Itisa 
coking coal here, and yields a fair article. At New Lisbon it had an 
excellent name as the Whan seam, but the workable area of the coal 
was small. It is easy to trace the seam around the northern and western 
border of the field, for both coal and limestone mark the horizon, and 
one or both will be found in almost every locality. The seam becomes 
mineable again in the Hocking Valley, but though 3 feet thick, it is 
seldom worked, on account of the close proximity of the thicker and 
better coal of the Middle Kittanning horizon. The Lower Freeport 
coal ranges from 25 to 65 feet above the Middle Kittanning, and has 
about the same limits with reference to the Upper Freeport. In Vinton 
county this seam gets the advantage of the Nelsonville coal, and in the 
vicinity of Hamden Furnace it is worked in preference to the latter, on 
account of its greater thickness. In Southern Ohio it is a seam of some 
local importance, being known as the Hatcher coal in Lawrence county. 
It is a moderately cementing coal throughout this western field, but is 
nowhere of the highest quality. 
